Virtual games can still hurt

We went to Andy and Wendy's place for lunch.

They have a Wii.

I walked a little too close to Andy when he was 'bowling'.

I got clonked in the head!

I settled down pretty quickly. Fortunately the controller has a rubber cover, and after both blokes wacked themselves in the head to see what sort of pain it causes, the general consensus was that it's not as bad as it looks - but that I should be kept at a safe distance, in case I got the urge to walk into the danger zone again.

Parks are too much fun to leave

I woke up early this morning. Not a very popular thing to do on a Saturday.

Dad got up and we had breakfast while mum had a sleep in. We played with my stacking blocks for a while, and then I busied myself playing with pegs in the laundry.

After my sleep mum and dad had to go to the plant nursery to pick up some fertiliser. I had a great time walking up and down the paths and looking at all the plants and garden statues. I didn't touch much (which relieved mum) and I even had a chat and a cuddle to the owner!

On our way home we stopped at a park, mum and dad tohught that seeing I loved the nursery I'd probably appreciate more time in a park. I did. I had a swing and then a good run about on the grass. Well, run isn't really the best word - a 'cautious walk' is better. But it was great fun.

So much fun, that when it was time to leave I was not ready. I cried. And cried.

I even cried when we got home. And cried during my bath. And cried right up until tea time. And then I stopped crying to eat. And then I started crying after I ate. And then I fell asleep.

Don't bite your friends

I am usually pretty quiet when we go out to mum's friday playgroup. I do my own thing and stay out of trouble.

Not today.

I was in the thick of it. I was sporting a black eye from yesterday's loss to the kitchen drawer. So I looked like a bruiser, and I acted like one.

I bit Zara. I annoyed Olive. I pinched people's drinks. I pulled Aanika's hair. I tied up the slippery dip by walking up it, and all the other kids had to wait patiently at the top for me to get off. I even had a 'John McEnroe' moment and threw the totem tennis racquet into a bowl of cheesels the big kids were eating.

Mum was quite embarrassed. She told dad. He wasn't proud either.

They told me that had better be the last day I pull stunts like that. I wonder if I can blame my teething for it all?

When dad got home we went outside and played in the backyard. For ages. Firstly with a footy, and then a blow up beach ball. I had a great time. And I didn't have the urge to bite or annoy anyone.

All three of us

Mum was home today, which is unusual. She's usually at school, but it's getting towards the end of the year and nobody was looking for a relief teacher today.


Usually us fellas have free run of the house to make videos, to run up and down the hallway, play air guitar and rock out to loud music and to not have to pick up after ourselves. But things were a bit different with mum working from home. So dad and I decided to go out after lunch and do the shopping. I was a very good shopper for dad. I tried to stand up a few times but I was otherwise very happy to go along for the ride.


After dad went to work in the afternoon, mum and I were working in the kitchen. She was unpacking the dishwasher and I was unpacking the bottom pot drawer. But then I slipped! Mum heard a very loud cry and I was sitting on the floor with my hands over my eyes. Mum was very relieved to see that my eye was still intact but I had a little cut just under my eye from where I slipped onto the corner of the drawer.

Ouch!


I settled down quite quickly but I'm now sporting a pretty tough looking bruise!

Not quite a dog paddle

I woke up looking a lot better this morning. And acting like my usual self.

I got to go to the pool. Mum reckons I'm getting a lot better at the things I should be doing, although I still refuse to kick when we do our kicking practice. But I do like to 'swim' when the teacher lets go of me and pushes me to mum - it's not a proper stroke - it's not even a proper dog paddle - but it seems to propel me in the right direction. I'm also pretty good at the 'falling in' practice.

Spew!

I woke up not looking well.

Then I rolled over and had a spew.

A bright yellow spew.

It helped everyone get out out bed.

I was not feeling well.

I had a morning bath, which is unusual, and proceeded to have a very quiet and clingy day. No playgroup, but I did have a visit to the doctor. The diagnosis is a 'low grade virus' caused by my teething. Those blinkin' teeth!

Early call

I had to cut my day short at grandma's because I had a bad case of the 'sads'.

Mum wasn't at school, so it wasn't too bad, and we could afford to have an early rendezvous.

I had time for a walk in the backyard. I am enjoying the outdoors a lot, now that I'm properly mobile. And, what might be even more exciting, I've rekindled my love of pegs!

Slippery dips

We went out for a barbecue this afternoon.

All the other kids were having fun on a slippery dip. I have had a go on a slippery dip once, at the park down the road, but dad held onto me very tightly that day.

I watched as all the other kids climbed up the steps and slid down. Then I decided I'd give it a go. I didn't really think through the whole thing and when I got to the top of the slide I did an awkward move that got me on my side, with one foot stuck under my bum (it's hard to explain, but you get the idea I wasn't in the traditional slippery-dip launching position). Dad was watching the whole procedure, and at the moment it looked like I was about to launch myself down - he grabbed a hold of me and made sure I would have a safe landing.

I laughed, and promptly climbed the stair again. It only took another two goes for me to figure out a better launchin position, but dad still kept an eye, and a hand, on me as I slid down - because I'm not good at holding my head up straight, and he didn't want me clonking my brains!

The trouble with an extra daytime sleep

I've been getting up early lately.

One of the problems with waking up early is that I get tired a bit earlier, and that means I wake up a bit earlier for lunch, and that means I get a bit grumpier around tea time.

Mum and dad thought they'd see if I could do with an extra daytime sleep - an afternoon nap. Mum was wanting a lie down this afternoon herself, so she cuddled me off to sleep.

Everything was fine until it was time for bed tonight.

I was not tired at seven o'clock.

I was not tired at eight o'clock.

I was not tired at nine o'clock.

I finally got tired close to ten o'clock.

Needless to say we're still working on the perfect timing for first and second daytime sleeps...

Body art

When mum and I picked up dad from work this afternoon I was wearing a nappy. No pants, no shirt, no shoes. Just a nappy. And a tummy covered in blue felt pen scribbles.

I had spilled water on myself, which is becoming a bit common lately.

I also discovered a pen, and quick as a flash, before mum could whisk it to safety, I got me some ink on my skin.

Our neighbours were in the garden when we got home and the adults had a good chat, but mum and dad were somewhat embarrased that their pride and joy was seen in public a) without any clothes on and b) with a doodled tummy!

Stand up if you like trolleys

Dad and I had to go to the hardware store today.

We looked at all sorts of blokey things.

My job was to hold a couple of smaller items - a little seedling pot and a connector pipe for our water tank. Dad grabbed a piece of plastic pipe and blew into it like a didgeredoo. I laughed, and then tried it myself. It kept me enertained for a while as we picked up all the bits and pieces we needed.

But I soon got a bit bored and decided I wanted out of the trolley. So I stood up. The little seatbelt is no match for me. So dad had to do some quick manouvering and shuffling of goods to get me sorted, and to keep all the stuff safely in the trolley.

He told mum about it. She said it's not the first time I've decided to bail out of the trolley. There was talk of me not going shopping in the future.

Plain bikkies 0 : Tim Tams 2

Dad stayed home from work today. He had a queasy tummy. Mum's job was to keep me out of his way so I don't get sick too. But I wasn't having any of this quarantine business. If dad's are home, then they're home to play, as far as I'm concerned.

I went to swimming in the morning and mum decided to test out how much I know by using a 'sink or swim' approach. She was very happy that I chose to swim - or at least thrash about until I got out of trouble.

Later in the afternoon, we were walking in the rose garden when our neighbour drove past and told us that there was a big storm coming. Those words were what it took to make mum and dad decide now was the perfect time to finish cleaning out the garage for the car. But there was one little chink in the plan...what to do with me. It's been mentioned before but I'm not very helpful in the cleaning and organising stakes. Dad's solution was to strap me in the high chair in the laundry so I could see what was going on. No way, dad! Mum's idea was to give me a plain biscuit and see if that would keep me busy. No way, mum!

Finally, in desperation, mum peeked into the fridge and saw an almost-finished packet of Tim Tams. They're not in the habit of handing me chocolate bikkies, and I've never had a Tim Tam before, but desperate times call for things stronger than a plain bikkie.

It turns out Tim Tams can buy ten whole minutes of peace and quiet!

50/50

One of the downsides of hitting the eighteen month mark is having to head to the doctor for another needle.

This time I wasn't as quiet and tough as I have been in the past.

When the needle hit my arm I wailed. Ow!

But things were soon fixed when the doctor offered me a jelly bean. Alright!

He did a few tests and measurements and I'm now fairly and squarely in the 50% percentile of height and weight. For someone who's been on the skinny side of things for his whole life it's good to be smack bang in the middle of all the other kids.

Drawn

It was a nice rainy day and mum and I stayed home all day.

After dad's success with my sleeps over the weekend, mum decided to try out his techniques. After a busy morning of vacuuming the house, mum put on a cd so we could jump around to some music. Mum started jumping around the house and tried to get me to dance too. But I wasn't impressed. I just climbed up on the couch to watch mum's crazy moves. Next, she tried the running up and down the hallway trick. I had a go, but after two laps lost interest and wandered off. Consequently, I only slept for an hour and a half and mum didn't get all her work done.

We spent the afternoon making towers with my blocks and playing with my special Russian Babushka doll. Then mum sat me down in the study with some drawing materials to keep me busy while she quickly checked her emails.

I did what I was told...but only to a point. Forget about the paper...I did all my drawing on my legs! I had to spend a little extra time in the bath tonight while dad scrubbed my legs. There's still a little bit left, but dad assures me it'll come off sooner or later.

Grumps

I had the grumps today.

I had another big sleep (sunday school tired me out) but after I woke up I was in a bit of a feral mood until the time I went to bed after tea.

I didn't really enjoy my bath, I didn't really enjoy a walk outside with dad and I didn't really enjoy tea. I think mum and dad enjoyed it when I finally went to sleep!

Big sleep

It was me and dad all day today. mum had to go to uni for a bit of peace and quiet to write up a big report for work. so us boys did what we do best - hung out!

Dad's plan was to play. First, it's fun, and secondly, if I play hard I sleep hard.

So we literally ran up and down the hallway - must have been over twenty times - waving our arms around and hooting and hollering. It was fun and I laughed and laughed and got wobblier and wobblier as the laps increased.

But that wasn't all - we jumped around to music in the loungeroom and then had a bit of a wrestle in the spare room. We haven't been able to use the spare room for months because it's been full of boxes, but we tidied it up a bit for grandma and grandad to stay, and since they're gone it's the perfect place to jump around.

All the running and jumping and rocking made me tired. I slept for three and a half hours! That's a modern record. Mum was quite impressed.

Eighteen months

I made it to another milestone. Eighteen months old.

Here is a quick snapshot of where I am at this historical moment;

My walking is getting a lot better - no longer do I look like a zombie lurching about with my arms extended out in front of me. I'm a lot better in bare feet than my shoes.

I love drawers and cupboards and pulling stuff out of them, and then putting the same stuff back in. It's a great occupation, but not really appreciated by mum.

I've still got teeth coming through (yep, the same ones that have been causing me grief for the past few weeks)

I am quite partial to soft drink. If I see mum and dad grabbing a plastic bottle full of the fizzy wonderdrink I'll point at it and then my bottle. They happily oblige - but I think they're having the last laugh - I drink it watered down. Very watered down.

I'm back onto meat.

Too quick

Dad and grandad were still doing jobs around the house today so grandma had a bit of baby duty inside.

The plan was to watch a bit of kid's telly. We sat down together, and I watched for a while, but soon decided to go for a wander. I was out of the loungeroom in a shot. I think I'm a bit quick for grandma, becasue she ghot left behind in the loungeroom while I roamed the house. I discovered dad and grandad fixing the push bikes out the back and spent a few minutes chatting through the screen door before grandma caught up to me.

It came from the depths

I went swimming in totally different gear this morning.

Mum and dad did a bit of swimming future-proofing by buying a size 3 suit months and months ago for me - we dug it out of the cupboard this morning and, lo and behold, it fits me now!

So we ditched my Rip Curl boardies and I had my swimming lesson in a streamlined one piece. It's not exactly like the ones they wore in the Olympics. It's blue and has scales printed on it, with bones sticking out, and a text bubble that says 'arrgh!' - It's a monster swimming suit!

All the mums told me I looked good when we got to the pool.

One thong is not enough

Mum and Grandma took me for a walk to the park this afternoon.

Unlike yesterday's marathon effort, I spent a bit of time in the pram. And this gave me ample time to get barefoot.

I was wearing my new thongs, and they're pretty east to take off. A lot easier than my sneakers.

I finally managed to get one off. And no one noticed. Until halfway home. Mum counted one thong. That's not enough thongs apparently. So mum had to run back to the park and do a scavenger hunt for the missing havaina.

She found it. And I had a quick lecture on why flinging shoes overboard is not a good idea. If it happens again they might buy my next thongs from Target. And that would teach me!

A long walk

Dad and grandad took me for a very long walk today.

We went to the park down the bottom of our street.

I've been there before, but I've never walked the whole way.

It took us ages, because my little legs can go only so far.

We discovered my swing with the safety chain had been tampered with (the chain was missing a few links - so it wouldn't click shut) and so I had to go on the slippery slide instead.

After a few good slides we decided we should head back home. And I decided to walk the whole way back. I got tired legs before we got home. But I didn't whinge. My steps just got a lot shorter! Grandad laughed that if it were any further I'd probably have ended up marching on the spot!

I was pretty zonked when we got home, and even lay on the cork floor in the dining room to rest my head before tea.

Dairy-ian

You've heard of vegetarians (I've been one of them), and fruitarians (I've been one of them too) - but lately I've been a dairy-ian.

That's right, I've had a diet of milk and cheese and yoghurt.

Well, to be honest it's only been one day. But my little gums hurt - you should see the lumps inside my mouth. You'd think a volcano was about to erupt. So I haven't been in the mood to eat much at all. Although, dad did succeed in trying to get to eat something non-dairy; Coco Pops!

Yep, the food pyramid is a weird shape at Long Lived Rock HQ at the moment!

Unpacking

Dad decided to clean out the garage today. It's still full of cartons of stuff from our move.

I decided he needed some help.

I squeezed through a few openings, and had a wonderful time exploring the world between boxes. I'd cry if I made it to a dead end. Which was often. And then I really cried when I leaned on a really big box to find it was empty - it fell over with a bit of a crash - and even though I stayed standing, the fact that I made a box bigger than me fall over freaked me out. More tears.

We eventually gave up on the garage and headed into the loungeroom for a bit of air guitar rockin'.

Grandma and grandad arrived late tonight. They're visiting for a week, and helping do a few jobs around the house.

Too tired to sleep, so let's get into the garden

I was too tired to sleep today.

Mum and I went out to lunch today, so she could talk to her friends and I could play with mine.

It used to be that Olive and I played inside while the bigger kids played outside in the cubby house. But today Olive decided to be one of the big kids and disappeared to the backyard. I'm not so sure about the backyard. I went out there for a little bit to have a look around but then retreated to the safety of the playroom. No green ants in the playroom. But no playmates either, unless you count Zara. And she's still a bit little for me.

After lunch I fell asleep in the high chair so Mum decided it was time to go home. She had lots of work to do and was hoping I'd have a nice long sleep. But as it turned out, I had no sleep at all!

So when Dad got home from work he was immediately put in charge of me and we went outside and had a great wander in the garden.

I quite like the backyard. There's always something interesting to point at. Especially spiders in their webs. I like them. Not knowing what spiders are probably helps. I reach out and touch some of the flowers - but dad won't let me reach out at the spiders.

We'll blame the new teeth for that

Dad and I hung out today. No shopping expeditions this week, just messing around at home.

I wasn't eating much - dad blamed the new teeth.

I sat and played on the floor in the study as dad did a few things on the computer, and after a little while he noticed a weird yellow puddle on the floor. He thought I'd spewed. He picked me up and asked me if I was ok - and checked my tummy for any weird milky smells. Nothing. so he got a cloth and wiped it up, and gave it a bit of a smell. It wasn't spew. It was poo!

They say when you get new teeth your poos can go runny (I hope no one's eating....) and they were - so much so they ran out of my nappy and onto the study floor.

But dad cleaned it all up and I was back to my usual self soon after. And so was he. But I think he's not stepping on the site of the incident, just to be safe!

There's nothing fun about a sea of plastic balls

I know I've been using it as an excuse for many things, but my molars are still really hurting. And I was in a bit of a grumpy mood today.

We went to swimming and I didn't want to walk on the mat like I did last week. And as usual, I didn't do any kicking either.

After swimming, mum and I went to a special playcentre to meet one of her friends and her little boy who is about my age. The grown-ups thought it would be a great idea to get together at a place where there was lots of fun stuff for little people to do.

But we little people took quite a bit of warming up to the idea. For a start, I discovered there is not much to like about those pits filled with colourful plastic balls. The idea of sinking into a sea of plastic is not my idea of fun, and I let everyone know about it. I ended up having fun playing on different things, but I'm definately a few months (or maybe a year) away from having a good time in the pit of (plastic ball) doom.

Two playdates

Mum took me to Shelley's place for a play before playgroup.

Two plays in one day!

She decided to go to uni to do a spot of work, because a certain little person was making it impossible for her to do the work at home. I find that very hard to believe!

I played with Olive and Harvey, but did spend a bit of time sticking close to Shelley.

Later on at playgroup, I stuck close to Shelley even though Mum was right there too!

Not quite myself

I hung out with grandma today. She thought I wasn't quite myself.

I think my gums are still hurting. Those big molars haven't come all the way through yet, and since there's four of them, that's a lot of uncomfortableness for a little guy like me.

It took me ages to settle down after tea tonight, both mum and dad had 'baby settling' shifts, and an hour after bedtime I finally drifted off to sleep.

Oh, and on a totally different note, I have decided to do the yanks a service and tip their election. We've been forced to endure night after night of US election stuff, so it's the least I can do; Obama or McCain?

Puppies and kittens

We visited aunty Lyndall's friends today, their cat had kittens yesterday. They were very little. I was not allowed very close to them.

They also had some puppies. I was allowed near them, but was a little stand-offish. One little puppy tugged at my pants - but I played it cool and didn't cry. I did cry on the trip home though. Mum and dad decided to pull over at the next town, but each time they were about to pull over I'd stop crying. But then I'd start up again soon after we'd gone past the town. So that lasted a few towns until I finally went to sleep and we travelled in peace.

China and thongs and reunions

We had a big day today.

We got up pretty early for a saturday and dived into the car to go and visit aunty Lyndall.

We went to a big second hand sale and I spent most of the time tucked up safely in the pram - mum and dad wanted to be sure I kept my hands to myself - especially with expensive, and breakble, china and glass everwhere. I got a few compliments regarding my good behaviour.

It was pretty hot, and I was wearing my shoes and socks - dad thought it was a bit too hot for shoes and socks so we went to find me some cooler footwear. We got some thongs. Well, not just any thongs, baby havanianas. Tiny versions of the grown up thonngs - but mine have an elastic band at the back to help keep them on. They were $20. Dad said even his thongs didn't cost that much. But at least they're cool.

Then, when you thinkthe day couldn't get any cooler, grandma and grandad G turned up. I haven't seen them for months. I was alseep when they arrived, but after a couple of trips in to watch me sleep, I finally woke up and saw grandma smiling at me. I was a bit sleepy, but still managed to impress them with all the things I've learned since I'd seen them; my walking skills!